Heroku AppLink: Extend Salesforce with Any Programming Language

Summary

Heroku AppLink is now generally available from the Salesforce Setup menu, extending Salesforce with Heroku applications and code written in virtually any programming language. The initial release provides SDK support for Node.js and Python, while Java examples and direct AppLink API access demonstrate how other languages can integrate; the APIs provide authentication, authorization, connection pooling, and access to Salesforce and Data Cloud data. AppLink combines an add-on, service-mesh buildpack, dashboard, CLI, API, SDK, OpenAPI integration, and Salesforce API integration to provision connections, restrict and authenticate requests, publish services, and monitor org integrations. The add-on is free, with normal Heroku billing for compute and data resources, and published applications can extend Flow, Apex, and Agentforce while user mode is enabled by default.

Takeaways

1. 1

   The initial AppLink SDK supports Node.js and Python; Java examples use the APIs directly, which are designed to work with virtually any programming language.

2. 2

   The service-mesh buildpack handles authentication, blocks external access, and routes authenticated Salesforce requests to Heroku application code.

3. 3

   AppLink's add-on is free, but Heroku compute and data resources use normal Heroku billing; applications can be published for Flow, Apex, or Agentforce integrations.